Imidazole antifungals Miconazole and Econazole induce apoptosis in mouse lymphoma and human T cell leukemia cells: regulation by Bcl-2 and potential role of calcium.

We have recently reported that thapsigargin (TG), a specific endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-associated Ca(2+)-ATPase inhibitor, induces apoptosis in mouse lymphoma cells. In view of recent evidence that the imidazole antifungals econazole (EC) and miconazole (MC) inhibit TG-sensitive Ca(2+)-ATPase activity in normal rat thymocytes, we investigated the effect of these agents on intracellular Ca(2+) homeostasis and cell survival in WEHI7.2 mouse lymphoma cells and human CEMT-cell leukemia cells. In this report, we demonstrate that MC treatment releases Ca(2+) from the TG-sensitive ER pool of WEHI7.2 cells. MC induced apoptosis, based on morphological and biochemical criteria, and on inhibition by the Bcl-2 oncogene. Moreover, intracellular Ca(2+) changes induced by MC treatment were inhibited by overexpression of Bcl-2. In addition to inducing cell death in WEHI7.2 cells, MC induced apoptosis in the glucocorticoid sensitive and resistant human T-cell leukemia lines, CEM-C7 and CEM-C1 respectively, in normal thymocytes and in normal lymphocytes. Based on their apoptosis-inducing activity, imidazole derivatives should be explored as potential immunosuppressive and/or chemotherapeutic agents.